Party platforms all about you and the kids

As we eagerly await election day, let’s take a moment to talk policy.  

Don’t stop reading, I’ll try to make this interesting. 

Unfortunately, political parties struggle with the same problem – trying to grab your attention when it comes to what they'll actually do when they’re in government. 

You may not recall, but Justin Trudeau had a multitude of policies in his 2015 campaign platform. Most people weren’t aware of even half of them. I still remember a co-worker asking in disbelief if Trudeau, after being elected, supported marijuana legalization. 

Trudeau also promised that 2015 would be the last election using the current voting system. Yes, things may change once in government.  

But even with that broken promise, Trudeau was still riding high in the polls until the SNC-Lavalin Affair. A political party is not expected to fulfill every campaign commitment. 

Some are just too impractical. A third-place party (like the Liberals were) that suddenly ends up winning the election may find that its policies were too ambitious. If the Green Party were to form government, you can bet they’d tone down their climate change plan as soon as the economy started taking a hit. Or as soon as crowds started marching to protest high gas prices. You have only to look to France to see how fast President Emmanuel Macron caved. 

That being said, if a party breaks a straight-forward promise once elected, there can be consequences. Former premier of B.C. Gordon Campbell can attest to this after introducing the HST shortly after his election win – he was quickly shown the door for breaking his promise on taxation. And if Stephen Harper hadn’t cut the GST after winning a minority government in 2006, it’s doubtful he would have stuck around for 10 years. 

Simple commitments that require very little action on the part of a new government are non-negotiable. The public remembers them. Other commitments, like reducing healthcare wait times, another Stephen Harper promise of 2006, are far more ambiguous and challenging. The public will understand if these commitments aren’t fulfilled, so long as it looks like their leaders are trying. 

President Trump promised a big, beautiful border wall and has little to show for it, but his supporters are still behind him. In fact, it was such a stupid promise to begin with that his supporters understand if he’ll never achieve his goal. 

Our Canadian leaders have made a multitude of promises this campaign. But what do you remember? 

Off the top of my head, I recall an income tax cut promised by both the Liberals and the Conservatives. The NDP has promised more childcare spaces and expanded pharmacare. The Greens have committed to climate change (okay, I don’t really remember the details other than no pipeline) and the People’s Party has committed to reducing immigration (again, sketchy on the details - in this case, for good reason). 

There were also some gimmicky promises, like the Conservatives’ promise to re-implement the fitness and arts tax credits for children. And how can anyone forget the Liberals' promise to subsidize camping trips for low-income kids? As for the NDP, their slogan is gimmicky enough: “In it for you!” 

Lost in these gimmicks is the real direction the governing party is going to move us in. But do we really have to delve too far into a party’s platform to know? The Liberals have given us four years of what they govern like (generous social programming and deficits); the Conservatives have given us ten years prior to that (tax cutting and deficits); and the NDP has been around long enough provincially to show what they would do (even more generous social programming and yes, most likely deficits). The Green Party has little experience in government, but we can imagine (think NDP on steroids). And don’t even imagine where the People’s Party would take us (Trump on steroids?)  

So there you go. Our limited understanding of a party’s policies, as it turns out, is typically enough.  

You’re ready to vote.